


Sinking

by OppsieDasi



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Character Death, F/M, I'm Sorry, I'm still shoddy at formatting, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Like the entire fic is mostly about a funeral, M/M, This Is Sad, so sorry again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:20:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25669594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OppsieDasi/pseuds/OppsieDasi
Summary: There was a lot Zuko could say about Sokka, but it wasn't meant to be...ORZuko turns up for Sokka's funeral and has a few regrets.
Relationships: One Sided Sokka/Zuko, Sokka/Suki, Sokka/Zuko
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	Sinking

**Author's Note:**

> LISTEN!!!!!!! I figured that if the Water Tribe didn’t send their dead into the waters, then It Would Be a Damn Shame. I almost didn't post this because I try to aim for at least 1000 words but my friends told me this was good so I thought, why not?

It was a cold day in the Southern Water Tribe. Of course, it always was, there was snow everywhere, and Zuko simply wasn’t built for that weather. But this day felt particularly cold, despite him feeling numb to what was happening around him.  
They were gathered by the water’s edge. Katara had her head buried in Aang’s neck, she could barely watch, and Zuko could hardly blame her. Toph clearly looked uncomfortable with all of the emotion and the fact that she couldn’t see due to the snow boots, but she looked like she needed to grip onto someone like she used to do with Sokka. He would offer, but he knew that she would just wave him off.  
A small cough was heard, and he met eyes with the officiant who was leading the funeral. Realising he had to like the arrow, he did so graciously. The officiant handed the arrow to the archer, and they pulled the string back to fire.  
He joined his daughter’s side, who gripped onto his hands like she was a little kid again. The Gaang was still very close after the war. All of their children knew each other and their parents. Sokka was as much of an Uncle to Izumi as he was to Bumi, Kya and Tenzin.  
The archer fired at the boat that had been pushed into the ocean slightly. The boat caught on fire, similarly to when Hadoka had been sent off. He remembered holding Sokka close and desperately trying to calm down his racing heart.  
They all watched the boat slowly be consumed by fire as it continued to sail deeper into the ocean. He knew that Sokka was beyond dead, but he hoped his spirit would not be frightened of the fire that was surrounding his body. While they had stopped flinching from his fire decades ago, they were all cautious around fire. It made sense. The war still had its lingering effects.  
Some of the parents with younger children soon turned away, and that set off a slow domino of people leaving to continue celebrating his death. Some of his favourite foods were out for people to snack on and as Sokka would put it, talk about how awesome he was. It still felt wrong to refer to him in the past tense, but he couldn’t bring him back. No matter how much he wanted to.

He could barely remember the day he died. He remembered fighting some rebels. Both him and Sokka longed to continue to fight, and now that Zuko had finally retired from being the Fire Lord, he had a lot of time on his hands. He knew Sokka continued to miss Suki, her death being especially hard on him, so he thought that dealing with this group would be good for him.  
How foolish he had been.  
From there he couldn’t remember much.  
All he could register was the blood smeared across his hands and arms. Sokka’s gasping breaths as he desperately tried to stop the bleeding. But there was so much, he could barely tell where it started and where it ended.  
He couldn’t tell who was talking and what they were saying, but he could taste the saltiness of his tears trailing down his face. A hand came to stroke his arm, and it stilled, losing momentum, and resting peacefully against it. Like he had simply fallen asleep. He desperately tried to find his pulse, realising it was Sokka’s arm, but he couldn’t find it.  
“Sokka!” He all but wailed. If anyone were alive or moving right now, he would surely be embarrassed, “Sokka, please!”  
Only the howling wind answered him.

He was returned to the moment by Izumi gripping his shoulder. He had begun to shrink, and Izumi took great pride in the extra height it gave her.  
“Dad, are you coming?” She asked. He looked around, and most of the attendees had gone—even Katara.  
“I’ll be there in a minute,” He told his daughter. She smiled sadly, before turning to catch up with the rest of the funeral.  
He stared at where Sokka’s coffin and boat started to sink, the fire having burnt holes allowing it to do this.  
He loved Izumi and was proud of her. He wouldn’t trade her for anything in the world. But god, if he didn’t regret every decision, he made when it came to loving Sokka.  
There were many things he could say about Sokka, like how determined he was to follow his ambitions. His charisma that could settle a room of people so swayed by the Old Fire Nation’s propaganda they had forgotten human decency. His eyes just lit up whenever he was passionate about something, and it was enduring to see him babble about whatever new thing had excited him now.  
By the time he recognised his feelings, he was dealing with reforming an entire nation at only 17. It took forever to convince his advisers to allow homosexuality to be legal again, let alone allow them to marry and not get discriminated against. Then he was advised against coming out to his nation as he needed an heir and the general population was still unsure about having a child Fire Lord who was completely changing how the Fire Nation ran. It would simply be too much, and the assassination attempts would only increase from there.  
By the time he had a semi-stable nation, Sokka had announced his engagement to Suki.  
So, as he saw Sokka fall into the depths of the ocean, he whispered so only Yue and Sokka could hear, “I love you,”


End file.
